Absence Chapter 14
“Hey.” He looked up, surprised. His blue eyes found hers and only then did she walk in. “It’s almost midnight, Bright,” Dani announced. With this, his surprise only grew. He looked at the clock and she could see the alarm and disbelief on his face when he saw. At the same time, he didn’t immediately close the folder open in front of him. In fact, as she walked over towards him, he let his eyes fall back into his contents. He looked exhausted. But he didn’t look like he was stopping anytime soon, either. Dani pulled out a chair. She put her chin on her hand. “Bright…put it down,” she urged. “It can wait until the morning.”
“We shouldn’t stop,” he murmured. His voice was a little scratchy. She wondered if he’d left this room at all. If he’d eaten or even drank anything, all day. Her eyebrows were already beginning to draw together. He was oblivious, given that his eyes were still trained downward. “There’s a pattern now,” he insisted. “It’s spread to more than one person. Two people dead…that means there’ll be a third. And with the way he’s working, he most likely already has his third by now.” He shook his head. “We shouldn’t stop,” he repeated, his voice much firmer. “Not when we know what he’s capable of.”
She gnawed on the inside of her cheek for a second. Eventually, she tried to point out, “You’re not going to get anything done between now and tomorrow morning if you’re going to be half-awake.” Stubbornly, he still didn’t look up. She sighed, before she leaned out and gently put her hand on the folder and pushed it aside. His face fell. He looked up at her like he was wanting to snap, but when their eyes met, he must not have been able to for some unspoken reason. His words died and he ended up just staring at her. The look on his face pained her. She softened. “Take a break, Bright,” she tried to insist.
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